After initially facing some complications with pregnancy, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell welcomed Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O’Connell to the world on December 28, 2008. Charlie was named after Jerry’s younger brother, Charlie O’Connell. While Dolly was not named after a family member, she was named after someone very special to Romijn.
On a 2009 episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Romijn told the audience that Dolly was named after the country singer Dolly Parton. “I have incredible emotional ties to her music … and I had an opportunity to meet her when I was six months pregnant, and I saw her perform at Dollywood,” the supermodel shared. “Right before her show, I sat with her, and she asked me what I was thinking of naming my daughters, and I said, ‘I’m thinking about Dolly for one of them.'”
Parton was beyond ecstatic. On a 2015 episode of “Today,” Romijn revealed that Parton suggested she use her middle name, too. (It also happens to be Romijn’s first name.) “I got a letter from her in my mailbox — on butterfly stationery! — that said, ‘I forgot to tell you while you were here, my middle name is Rebecca. You should name her Dolly Rebecca after the two of us together,'” she recalled.
